The Chance Accident
by MihoAnsatsu
Summary: A look into what may have caused Stalfhaust's initial accident with her arm, including someone who would grow up to be a part of the Jungo.


I was 17 years old when life gave me the chance to call myself Stalfhaust.

Whilst I was working through my mechanic's training, I made the closest friends I've ever had- Casey, Teddy and to some extent, Atlas (he was an asshole but when you stayed on his good side, he was the nicest guy ever). And every so often, we planned road trips to anywhere and everywhere we could think of- amusement parks, beaches, you name it. If you could have fun there, then we were at the front of the que.

That weekend, we decided to keep it local and visit the Clint City zoo (this was long before the meteorite, for any timeline 'nazis') after hearing of its new arrival, Jalil. I love tigers. Such beautiful, majestic, strong creatures who aren't afraid to bite back at assholes, though that last one would soon prove to be more dangerous than hilarious.

I remember just leaning against the exhibit bars, watching Jalil just prowl around his jungle environment. He wasn't being protective or nasty, but rather stalking the fresh slab of meat that had just been thrown into his enclosure. I'm no vegetarian, but the smell of raw meat knocks me sick and I remember it being particularly gross. I had my hand covering my nose and mouth as if to protect my senses from the ghastly stench.

Jalil caught sight of me and, whilst not knowing what was going on, proceeded to copy me, covering his nose with his paw. It was kinda cute to see this striped wildcat copying human actions, as if we were a performing duo. I moved my hand from my nose, he moved his paw. I gave a little wave, he gave a similar back and forth motion with his paw. He'd now completely neglected the huge slab of flesh that he was meant to be mauling and seemed fixated on me, even going as far as to pad along towards the enclosure bars so we could get a closer look at each other.

"Hello there," I said, gently staring into Jalil's amber eyes. Honestly, one look and you wouldn't have stuck to using yellow to describe them. It's really weird how they changed to their orange colour, but then maybe the meteorite caused little cosmetic changes before the hybridisation and for Jalil, it happened to be his eye colour.

Placing his head on the bars, Jalil looked really pleased and comfortable as I began to stroke his head, even purring like he was a cute, domesticated kitty rather than the striped killer that he actually was. As I leaned in closer, I felt a strange, wet sensation tingling on my cheek, only to realise that the cheeky beast had dared to lick me. I'm just glad he'd done it before he ate the meat, or my cheek would have been stinking of rotten carcass for the rest of the day.

Of course, our interaction was catching attention from the other visitors, with many of them thinking that I was a zookeeper-in-training or tiger whisperer or some other third thing. I seem to remember one of the actual zookeepers hovering around the edges, as if they trusted me enough to carry on, but they didn't trust fate to not throw a bad hand. I understand that having someone's hand bitten off would not have been good for either Jalil's or the zoo's reputation. But he was behaving himself so well, even if he was continuing to be cheeky by licking my fingers constantly. It was if he was trying to scout out some long-lost flavour, which most likely would have been the Roast Chicken crisps I'd had earlier.

Public attention soon turned to personal attention, and by that I mean Casey, Teddy and Atlas had found me. Casey couldn't help giggling nervously as Teddy rolled in his eyes in a way that said 'You'd do something like this, Steff.' Unfortunately, Atlas chose to be an asshole and began tormenting Jalil, constantly bopping him on the nose. Any normal person would have stopped upon hearing the intense growling and seeing the bared teeth but not Atlas. He always went too far and expected someone else to take the fall when things went wrong. At that moment, he decided that I was his best chance of staying alive, gently prodding me in a bid to get my attention.

"He seems to like you, Steff, you get him to stop being so angry."

When I simply chuckled in his face and shook my head, Atlas was nice enough about it at first. Believe me, him giving you a short push and chirping 'Heh, rebellious bitch' is nice for him. But when he realised I was serious, he pushed me again. Only this time, it was strong enough to sent me thudding to the floor, but a sore ass would soon be the least of my troubles; before I knew it, Jalil had leapt over the bars of his enclosure and was slowly prowling his way towards a shit-scared Atlas.

"Nice tiger," he just about managed to spit out. I remember his trembling stance and the look on his face that screamed he regret even touching me; one look of that frightened face being all I needed to know he was truly sorry, I managed to hoist myself up from off the ground and immediately placed myself between Atlas and Jalil, as if I was a human gate.

"No, Jalil," I said, arms stretched out wide. I'd heard this advice from a wildlife program that wildcats were quick to retreat from 'bigger' threats, and arms stretched wide often did the trick for us human beings. For the time being it seemed reliable, as Jalil began to slowly back off, amber eyes full of guilt and regret. And it could have ended like that had Atlas kept his mouth shut and not felt the need to gloat.

"Stupid tiger. No wonder you're going extinct."

And as if he'd understood every word of Atlas' victorious taunt, Jalil lunged for my asshole friend once more, his growling deep and dangerously strained. And before anyone could react...well...the next bit was painful and bloody and I don't care what anyone says...100% Atlas' fault. I remember staring him down the entire time Jalil was sedated and placed back into his enclosure, and the asshole stared back as if I was the most evil person in the world for even considering blaming him. Still, Atlas is in a coma now, so that gives me a little morbid comfort.

At this point, you're probably thinking that Jalil ripped my hand off, and in all the panic and confusion...well, you'd be partially right. The tiger broke through the skin and even part of the wrist tendon with his sharp teeth, resulting in my hand becoming floppy and somewhat unresponsive.  
One of the public had approached me, explaining that he knew a doctor who specialised in advanced amputations. What I didn't know was that this doctor was a fully fledged member of the GHEIST, but I was too in shock to refuse their help despite constant warnings from everyone around me. All I remember is this taut, thin male figure with straggly, brownish hair who explained that my whole arm would have to be replaced if that hand was ever to be responsive again. I didn't care, as I just wanted the movement to return to my dead fingers, even if they would soon be wriggling digits of cold steel.

~

Four years later, when I was just turning 21, the news of the meteorite hit the Clint City media. I remember Dorian being adamant on his morning show that the animals turning into men was just a silly rumour and that of course the zoo was still safe to visit. It made me think of Jalil and whether he had been affected.

It also made me somewhat thankful that the return journey to the GHEIST HQ resulted in the entrance sewer grid being right next to the zoo; one white lie to Toro later and I had bought myself an hour or so to look around. It wasn't actually too different than from what I remember, though far more run down and vandalised and I assumed it was the work of the so-thought mutated animals; careful not to disrupt anything as I gently paced along the dark, cement pavements, I soon found myself approaching Jalil's old exhibit as if guided by fate's idea of a joke. However, instead of the prowling tiger I'd seen four years previous, I noticed a rather short, furry, grey figure who seemed transfixed on me despite donning a blindfold.

"Who goes there?" He said, in a way that silently dared me to take one step further.

"Stalfhaust," I replied, managing to keep my voice calm and authoritative despite the fact I had the feeling this sight-hindered mole could suddenly punch and kick me into submission.

"I smell the sciencemen on you," he said, trying to keep the force in his voice."Go on, try and take us for your savage experiments. You'll have a fight on your hands."

Taking one step forward was enough to stir the animal's more territorial instincts even further, though it meant that my face was properly in the light and it didn't take long for a certain defender to recognise me; from the shadows stepped a tall, striped figure dressed top to tail in urban gear as the latest hip-hop track was blaring from his white, stylish earbuds.

"Woah...it's _you_," Jalil said, immediately rushing up to me and giving me a rough, tight hug. "I thought you'd never come to see me again after what happened."

"You know this human, Jalil?" The little mole asked, his lack of sight meaning he was looking in all sorts of directions; only when Jalil took his hand and gently placed it on my leg did he stop, looking up at what he presumed was my face and blushing from behind his blindfold.

"Hello."

"Hello," I replied, smiling for the hell of it. Somehow, Jalil's trust of me was quickly rubbing off on his fellow Jungo as he 'looked' me up and down; the tiger nodding and following suit as he picked it up on this, his eyes slightly widened as he caught sight of the familiar, red and black skull on my jacket.

"Get a feeling of this lady's aura, Moegura" he said, sounding rather serious. "She will most likely smell of the sciencemen during every visit, so hold back your martial arts moves until you can be sure that it isn't her."

"And if you sense a black male with long dreads and boasting about his weapon handling, then give him an extra special welcome from me, if you catch my drift."

I then couldn't help giggling at the fact I'd basically told Moegura he could beat the shit out of Darth on sight; at the time, he kinda deserved it for almost blowing my artificial arm off during an 'accidental' test fire of his 'trusty' bazooka.

Speaking of my artificial arm, Jalil finally caught sight of the steel flesh and immediately couldn't seem to bring eye contact with me, as if he knew perfectly well that his actions had caused my modifications. I tried to take a step forward in a bid to explain that he had nothing to be ashamed for but upon my step forward, he stepped back in conviction of my shouting at him. I realised there was no point in trying to reason with him, so I simply pointed to my arm, pointed to Jalil and then shook my finger. He was only following tiger instincts and they were nothing to apologise for.

Glancing up and catching sight of my little gesture, he broke eye contact once again, yet he seemed a lot easier as if my silent message was beginning to sink in.

"Say," he then began, seeming a little uneasy as his striped cheeks begin to flush a faint scarlet. "I know it sounds weird, but I'd like to make it up to you. I'd like you to be the guest of honour at tonight's feast. I'm sure I can talk Ongh into agreeing, he's the one who always says that a friend to one Jungo is a friend to all Jungo."

"I'd like that very much," I replied, smiling back at them. I don't know why I was so quick to agree, I guess it was because I knew Jalil wasn't really a bad tiger and I knew he really wanted to make it up to me for that incident of years past. That, and in my interest of how the animal folk dined, I realised I'd have some cute, kitschy information to share with my fellow scientists that wouldn't damage my friendship with Jalil beyond repair.

And that's where I'm going to leave our little story, if that's ok. Of course, the GHEIST weren't exactly too happy that I'd gone out making friends with wild animals, but once I explained it was the Jungo and not the Sentinel, then they seemed more relieved than anything. I didn't really understand back then and I still don't really understand right now. But they were the first to offer a helping hand and being part of a clan with their reputation was and has been worth my extra moments of strength. Believe me, I've certainly needed this steel fist of mine...


End file.
